The Puccini jubilee produced a number of recital discs and several
complete operas. Most of these were reissues but two soprano
recitals - Babajanyan on EMI and Nizza on Dynamic - came my way,
together with a mixed disc of arias and duets with Haloran and
La Spina on ABC. But we haven’t had a brand new disc with
tenor arias since José Cura’s debut recital in the
mid-1990s (Erato). Cura made the journey through the master’s
oeuvre backwards: starting with Nessun dorma from Turandot and
ending with Le villi. Armiliato travels the more natural
way, though he for some reason transposes Le villi and Edgar and
places La fanciulla del West after Il trittico. Cura
is also the most complete, insofar as he includes one further
solo from Manon Lescaut, Amore o grillo from Madama
Butterfly and the two solos from La Rondine.
However, completeness is not necessarily a criterion for a successful
recital. Rather I would say, and have said so on several occasions,
that the solo recital format is seldom an ideal way of presenting
isolated excerpts from operas. In the good old days - the era
of the 78 rpm records - one bought a record with a maximum playing
time of 5 minutes per side. When the microgroove records appeared
around 1950 we got extended playing time but an EP played for
- at most - 16-20 minutes and the LP recitals around 40 minutes.
Forty minutes with one singer approached the upper limit, but
with the advent of the Compact Disc and playing time exceeding
75 minutes there had to be very charismatic singers indeed to
avoid monotony. There have been some clever examples of creative
programming. The ABC disc mentioned above with a soprano and
a tenor sharing the available space and sprinkling in a duet
or two for even greater contrast is an excellent idea. A Naxos
disc some years ago, one of my very first reviews for MusicWeb
International, employed four singers and thus they could also
offer even more variation, for instance in the Rigoletto quartet.
And several recent recitals have launched the idea with guest
artists, coming in for just one or two numbers.

This preamble should not be interpreted as the beginning of a ‘panning’ of
the disc under scrutiny. Quite the opposite, in fact. Fabio Armiliato
is one of the most richly endowed and most thrilling tenors now
before the public. He combines some of the best attributes of
some of his most illustrious predecessors. Judging a singer solely
by recordings does not always give a fair picture of his capacity,
but when I heard Fabio Armiliato at the Vienna State Opera about
seven years ago in Don Carlo, I at once got the feeling
that I was listening to the natural successor of Mario Del Monaco.
Here was a glorious, expansive voice with the capacity to fill
a vast space - and the Vienna State Opera is vast. He had the
punch, the thrill and the stamina for the role, and his top notes
had that ring that creates goose-flesh. But he was also able
to sing softly in the Gigli or Tagliavini way, his mid-register
had the warmth of Bergonzi and his involvement reminded me of
Di Stefano. Strong words, and readers may think I had found a
phenomenon who could out-sing any contemporary competition -
or in the past for that matter. Well, I’m not implying
that he surpasses those tenors mentioned but he is, as I have
said, richly endowed. I hope the description will at least give
an indication of what he sounds like. It is a rather lean voice,
in spite of the heroic heft, and the Puccini repertoire suits
him extremely well.

In the first two arias Puccini hadn’t fully found his mature
style but they are interesting anyway. Particularly fascinating
is the orchestral writing in the one from Le Villi. The
four excerpts from Manon Lescaut find him in glorious
form. Tra voi belle lacks the lightness of Björling
but Donna non vidi mai is splendid. Che gelida manina is
stylish and impassioned and the high C has a healthy ring. Best
of all is E lucevan le stelle, so inward and contemplative,
mostly sung at pianissimo. Rinuccio’s role in Gianni
Schicchi was written for a tenorino but Armiliato lightens
the tone skilfully and the solos from Il Tabarro offer
truly heroic singing. As Calaf he is also in his element and
he makes a beautiful diminuendo at the end of the first stanza.
All in all there is a lot to savour in every aria here.

I’m afraid that the backing isn’t on a par with the
singing. The orchestra is quite recessed and - even more damaging
- the conductor is so laid-back that he hampers the singer. Additional
thrust from the orchestra would have made this an even more compelling
recital.

Fabio Armiliato is no newcomer. He made his professional debut
as long ago as 1984 but his voice is still in mint condition
and this is, in spite of less than enthusiastic accompaniment,
an excellent recital. I regret that the booklet has no texts,
only a couple of essays with at least some description of the
contents of the arias. It should also be mentioned that there
is a very good Verdi recital available on Real Sound 051-0016,
recorded in 2000 and including the rarely heard Inno delle
Nazioni from 1862. The present disc is however well worth
anyone’s money and it is a pleasure to hear such fresh,
impassioned and stylish singing.

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